I absolutely adore Pandy who takes her senior citizenship and turns it upside-down with a ton of spunk. She’s always been one to chase a pine cone around no matter who is throwing it, but she’s not the most affectionate dog. So, I’ve been working on that aspect of her personality a bunch. I always make sure to pet her before our game of pine cones and she’s gotten pretty used to it. About a month ago, Deb was feeding the roosters grapes which was HILARIOUS because they’d rush over and snatch them up, yelling all the way and then stagger off in a random direction (roosters look ridiculous when they run). I noticed that Pandy was looking pretty bummed that she wasn’t getting any. She tried darting forward to get one but the roosters squawked her out of the way and snagged them. Then she’d stand there with a dejected look on her face. Deb gave me a handful, saying, “I don’t think she likes them but let’s see” and it turns out that she loves them! That story has nothing to do with affection, I just like it. Back on track, my newest thing is to pull her in for long hugs and she’s gotten into them. She even leans into me and patiently waits for me to finish and then runs off in hot pursuit of a pine cone. Once she’s focused on the game, however, there’s no getting close to her, but those hugs are GREAT beforehand!

This week, with all the snow, finding pine cones was challenging. She found the tiniest one that I’ve ever seen and we played for a while. I went off to give treats to Levi and Rango (who I’ve yet to introduce you to. What is WRONG with me? Rango introduction coming soon…) and she followed. She managed to unearth (or un-snow, if you will, wahn-wahn-wahn) a HUGE stick and she went even more nuts over it than she does over the pine cones (I think I’m setting a world record for the use of the words “pine cones” in this post)! She even waited patiently for me to continue our game when I went to visit some bunnies. (I’m standing inside their enclosure.)

Here’s a video of her with the stick. Right in the middle, Levi makes a funny nose and distracts all of us, but Pandy’s attention is only diverted for a second and then it’s game back on!

Pandy rarely looks at the camera or stays still for a second, so I was thrilled when I got this photo.